Unemployed Singaporean recalled ‘depressing and painful’ experience

I was unemployed for almost 6 months til I was finally given an opportunity at my current workplace. Even pleading for a job won’t help.

My wife has just given birth to a pair of twins and its my 3rd and fourth child. Some of the companies’ HR have actually told me that I was not really in a dire state coz my wife is still working. But with what she’s earning (2200 a month), we struggled a lot juz to make ends meet!! I even maxed out my credit card juz so to have our fridge and stomachs filled.

Luckily there was baby bonus for the twins that we HAD to use to buy milk powders and pampers for them. Essential items for the kids are provided but for the rest of us, very depressing. My wife had a minor depression as financially we were at our wits end.

I sent a total of 647 resumes in total via JobsDB and Jobstreet. I even lost count on the ones I sent from ads in the papers. And painful fact, I only attended 4 interviews, 6 open/mass interviews out of the many applications I made. By the way, I applied for any job in the market that’s available. I’m a double private diploma holder in Visual Comms and Sociology, have 12 years working experience in Shipping and Interior sales line altogether.

I even applied for physical jobs like cleaners and security. Still rejected. 6 months of such depressing and painful experience, where did I go wrong? Till now I still wonder.

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This entry was posted on June 10, 2012 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Letters.
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alansaid

Singaporeansaid

For a man of his experience and qualifications, asking for a pay of 2-3k is reasonable. In fact, its probably not enough to raise his 4 children. And PAP has been blaming citizens for the low birth-rate. Singapore’s wage is way too ridiculously low compared to the ever-increasing costs of living. Why don’t you walk the talk and try surviving on a $800/mth job?

DPM Teo Chee Hean is tendering his resignation over the harrasment of SJC student by his Ministry. Its a million dollar post with no responsibilities. You have all the attributes for the plum posh post.

mahbok tansaid

Its because our MSM are not telling lies just the rite amount of information that we all as citizen must have …. or else we citizen will not have the time to du the tinking…!!!

Its the way they want us to see , a half-full glass of water instead a half-empty glass of water…..remember this from LKY speech sometime back. In another words they only want us to see the positive side of things happening in SGpore but not the negative side of the story.

Only those who have been and done it will understand it. The hardship that our fellow citizen is facing , are not faced by him alone …… more are facing it but our ministers are just closing both eyes to it…..hoping that it will go away once the tide comes in ( or the economy are in a better shape )

I just don’t get it and hopefully all our fellow SGporean will realise that it is our responsibilities as to what happen in our country , the hardship that we are having is because of our own mistakes to vote in the incapable people into parliament and be ministers. Since the 70’s till now , the GOVT of the day have been taking us the citizen Of Singapore for granted and bulldozed everything in parliament with out proper consideration towards its own people ….. now we cannot complain but to rectify it ourself by not voting the assholes(read arrogant) and fugshit ( read NATO ) into parliament.

Factssaid

you should do some planning & know your limits, can’t afford the high standard of living in singapore, don’t make more
kids. now you’re have four mouth to feed, why stress yourself. life will be a tough for you & your family, good luck to you.

Dun think is a localsaid

Char_Aznsaid

Problem
1)private diploma holder in Visual Comms and Sociology <- not very high demand diploma and from private schools some more = even lower demand
2)Qualifications and certification does not match <- U send in this resume and someone with similar work experience but relevant cert, who u think the company will hire?
3)Shipping line and for certian industry even sales now dealing more and more with China, from your name I assume U are not Chinese. U may want to pick up the language or learn Hindi coz that's where the business are moving to. India and China. My boss have mentioned that my chinese is not good enough and heck I took higher chinese during my school days
4)In your situation, ask for lower pay and/or work part time during during your job search so that you will at least have some income until U get a real job
5)Everyone goes through what you've gone through. Even in good times, it takes at least 2-3 mths to secure a job let alone now when times are starting to turn really bad. 6 mths is not surprising.

sweeteesaid

Ryansaid

Yes because it makes so much sense in a first world country for degree and diploma holders to gun for jobs like taxi drivers, counter staff and “security job(s)” =_= Obviously getting a job for the sake of a job isn’t the issue here.

Zhangsaid

Alan who want to get paid 800 one mth, can’t even buy toilet paper to clean your ass! This is Singapore for goodness sake! Why so many people overseas worked here and Singaporean with certs are jobless!!!!

davesaid

Just a word & suggestion – could it be those 600+ resumes were sent without regard to what each employer wants? Usually every resume will be different in some respect – tailored to the needs and requirement of the prospective employer – e.g no use emphasizing on ur diploma qualifications if the job calls for sales in some product. Ur experience in selling and dealing w clients should be emphasized much more here. I suggest that instead of mass mailing, u should provide a few resumes, maybe abt 20 for a start, taking into account what each of these employers want in a staff they are going to employ. Emphasize those strengths and experience that are relevant for that particular position.

zensaid

Samaylsaid

I too was unemployed for 6 months. Reason: I cannot read and write Mandarin eventhough I speak basic words and sentences. In IT who actually programmes in the Chinese characters? No one. But that’s the reason I could not get a job.

Its the government policy of being bilingual – English and Chinese. The rest of us who are probably trilingual but don’t speak Chinese fluently are caught out. I can understand if you deal directly with China and need a local Chinese or someone who can speak it fluently to work, but this borders on ridiculous.

And there is supposed low employment here. I feel for this guy cause even I sent over 500 resumes thru job sites or directly to the employer. Had 4 interviews.

I am not against foreign PMETS who are qualified to join us, just the PRCs who come but do not speak English. I guess English is not a pr-requisite for them.

SGsaid

I am afraid that job employment trend eyed on foreigners with or without E & S pass and over 40% are Singapore Permanent Residents seeking new employment and expecting salary adjustment. Any Singaporeans who have lost their job with last salary over $2k p/m are unlikely to command the same salary. Worse still, you may not even have a chance to fill in the job application form. Should you have any contact or friend(s) working in Employment agency, check with them. I’ll bet my life on it.